The pilgrim's progress from this world to that which is to come : delivered under the similitude of a dream, wherein is discovered the manner of his setting out, his dangerous journey, and safe arrival at the desired country. By John Bunyan.
1688
Items
Details
Title
The pilgrim's progress from this world to that which is to come : delivered under the similitude of a dream, wherein is discovered the manner of his setting out, his dangerous journey, and safe arrival at the desired country. By John Bunyan.
Edition
The eleventh edition with additions, and the cuts. Licensed and entred according to order.
Created/published
London : Printed for Nathanael Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry near the church, 1688.
Description
[12], 199, [5] p., [11] plates : ill. (engraving, woodcuts) ; 12mo
Associated name
Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Cited/described in
Wing, D.G. Short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English books printed in other countries, 1641-1700 (2nd ed.), B5572
English short title catalogue (ESTC), R008387
English short title catalogue (ESTC), R008387
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271254 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
Ordered from Quaritch, D9331, 2019-07-26, Advance Proofs cat 1440, item 14. Purchase made possible by The Gladys Brooks Acquisitions Endowment Fund. Purchase made possible by The Elizabeth L. Eisenstein Acquisitions Fund. From dealer's description: "12mo, pp. [12], 199, [5, conclusion and advertisements]; with an engraved frontispiece, twelve woodcut plates and two full-page woodcut illustrations; tear to B1 without loss, corner of F1 torn touching side-note, paper flaw in K3 affecting several words; a rather badgered copy, extremities frayed, corners thumbed, some staining, dusty in places, in contemporary sheep over paste boards, very worn, covers detached; numerous contemporary and near-contemporary ownership inscriptions to inner boards and flyleaves, the various owners apparently linked, with manuscript poems. ‘Eleventh edition, with additions, and the cuts’, very rare. This was the probably the last lifetime edition of Bunyan’s most famous work, possibly excluding an unobtainable ‘twelfth edition’ which appeared in the same year – no plates and with slightly different pagination (Regent’s Park College, Oxford, only, ‘fire-damaged’). Earlier editions have no more than three or four illustrations, sometimes with a frontispiece, sometimes without. The present edition increases the number of images to a total of 15. ESTC calls for 11 plates but there are in fact 13 here plus two full-page illustrations in the same format. Nathaniel Ponder was the first publisher of Pilgrim’s Progress, issuing his first edition in 1678 and the first illustrated edition in 1683. His subsequent career as ‘Bunyan Ponder’ was an almost continual struggle to keep up with the work’s incredible popularity and combat the appearance of piracies, which caused severe financial difficulties; those printers whom Ponder had initially prosecuted would later be relied on to print the work and even lend him money. Bunyan died the tail-end of August 1688 having contracted a severe fever. The 1688 editions of Pilgrim’s Progress are doubly poignant, being also the last editions to appear under Nathaniel Ponder’s name, almost certainly as a result of his being imprisoned for debt in the King’s Bench that same year (Plomer). The annotations in this copy provide a fascinating record of shared readership over a surprisingly long period of time, some sixty years in the lives of several contemporary and early readers. The first of these is John Palmer who dates his first inscription 1688: ‘John Palmer this Booke do[th] owne I would to all men it were known’. In his hand are a number of illegible mottoes and notes, as well as this arithmetical conundrum: A roper married [his] daughter to a sop[er] [i.e. soap-maker] and for portion gave 20 ropes & in every rope 20 notes [i.e. knots] & in every note 20 purses & in every purse 20 £ now I demand what portion ye roper gave to ye soper. A second John Palmer, perhaps a son, has inscriptions dated 1699 and 1708, one of which is Bunyan-esque: ‘When I was […] awake my mind was so distracted and carried away with vain and worldly thoughts that my soul seemed to be absenta [sic]’. The second principal owner is Richard Wyatt, who provides a record in very ropey Latin of John Palmer gifting him the book: ‘(1741) Richard Wyatt eijus liber anno domini/ Datur ad me per Johanni Palmer […] Johannes Palmer, datur liber(um?) ad me/ Tertio die Junio annum nostri Domini unus millissime septem centum tragentia & octa. [1738]’. The rear pastedown has the following bawdy inscription in Wyatt’s hand: Remember maids that you mu[st die?] And under earth and stones must [lie?] Therefore make haste to get a man To lye under stones as soon as you [can?] ESTC notes two copies in the UK, at the BL (very imperfect and ‘mutilated’) and Bedford Central Library, and three copies in North America, at NYPL (some edges cropped, several pages slightly mutilated), Pierpont Morgan, and the Huntington (wanting frontispiece). Wing B 5572."
Folger accession
271254